A Real Affliction: BPD, Culture, and Stigma

Cynthia Gralla
  • 5.0 (3)
  • MENTAL HEALTH
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

A Real Affliction: BPD, Culture, and Stigma is an interview podcast that explores how we live with, treat, advocate for, write about, and conceptualize borderline personality disorder, as well as common co-occurring challenges like complex PTSD, eating disorders, and substance use disorder, all of which I’ve experienced. My guests and I will also discuss how literature, film, television, photography, dance, philosophy, the history of medicine, feminist and disability studies, nature, and bioethics reflect, illuminate, and impact the experience and cultural perceptions of BPD. The podcast’s goal is to increase access to effective, compassionate care.

  1. 09/01/2025

    Communication strategies for people with BPD and their treatment providers

    How can people with BPD and their clinicians communicate more effectively and compassionately with each other? In this solo episode, I draw on my personal experiences and my study of narrative medicine to offer tips for people on both sides of the doctor-patient encounter, especially during the initial visit and collection of the patient’s history. I explain why self-advocacy is so important, particularly for those who identify as women.   Rita Charon, Narrative Medicine: Honoring the Stories of Illness  Maya Dusenbery, Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick Edvard Munch, The Scream Columbia University narrative medicine program University of Toronto narrative-based medicine program

    22 min

  2. 08/28/2025

    “You can't necessarily compare your trauma to someone else's”: Social worker Samantha Dellosso

    How does the health care system condition how we see our mental health treatment and diagnoses? In this interview—an excerpt from a much longer conversation—I talk with Samantha Dellosso, a social worker, health administrator, and friend of forty years. She and I discuss Medicaid in the U.S., viewing personality disorders along a spectrum, and how adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) don’t necessarily determine who we turn out to be. Alexander Kriss, Borderline: The Biography of a Personality Disorder Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score

    33 min

  3. 08/18/2025

    “You’re talking about me”: Sara from the Bold Beautiful Borderline podcast

    How does BPD impact reproductive choices? In this candid interview, Sara Abbott, the host and producer of the #1 Bold Beautiful Borderline podcast, talks with me about how BPD is affecting her decision to have children. We also discuss intergenerational trauma and the stigma she encountered while getting her Master of Social Work degree. Trigger warning: This episode discusses suicide. If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.

    34 min

  4. 03/15/2025

    Still Life: The Posthumously Published Diary of Lara Gilbert

    What can we learn from the posthumously published diary of Lara Gilbert, a young Canadian woman with BPD traits who suffered from complex PTSD in the 1990s? In this episode, I read excerpts from I Might Be Nothing: Journal Writing, a selection of writings from the 3200-page diary of Lara Gilbert, which I read in the archives of the University of Victoria. Lara was a brilliant and talented writer, and I wanted some of her words to be heard. While her story is tragic, her experience is a reminder that life is always hard, no matter which era you live in, but we have far more treatment options for BPD and complex PTSD than we did 30 years ago. It is also a reminder that our words live on. This episode concludes the first year of the podcast. Trigger warning: This episode talks about CSA, rape, and suicide. If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources: Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” Jennifer Douglas et al., “‘Treat Them with the Reverence of Archivists’: Records Work, Grief Work, and Relationship Work in the Archives” Lara Gilbert, I Might Be Nothing: Journal Writings Cynthia Gralla, “Boxed Memories,” Room, Vol. 46, No. 3 (“Ghosts” issue), September 2023 Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji Murasaki Shikibu, The Diary of Murasaki Shikibu Bea Tusiani, Pamela Tusiani, and Paula Tusiani-Eng, Remnants of a Life on Paper: A Mother and Daughter’s Struggle with Borderline Personality Disorder

    26 min

  5. 03/01/2025

    "I learn about resilience from my garden": Solara Goldwynn of Royal Roads University

    What is the relationship between BPD and food security? BPD and food insecurity are prevalent among university students, and research shows that poor diets, both in terms of insufficient calories and an overreliance on ultra-processed foods, fuel mood dysregulation, depression, and suicidality. I believe that most universities could do more to support student food security, food sovereignty in the community, and overall mental well-being through food gardens. In this interview, I’ll be speaking with Solara Goldwynn, the farm and food systems lead for a food-growing initiative at Royal Roads University, which is dedicated to sustainability and partnerships with local Indigenous communities. She also explains how gardening can increase resilience. Solara’s food garden business: www.hatchetnseed.ca  Community Food Centres Canada: https://cfccanada.ca/en/Home Diane Ackerman, Cultivating Delight: A Natural History of My Garden Richard Dal Monte, “How Does This Garden Grow . . . Community?” https://www.royalroads.ca/news/how-does-garden-grow-community Bonnie Kaplan and Julia J. Rucklidge, “Junk Food and the Brain: How Modern Diets Lacking in Micronutrients May Contribute to Angry Rhetoric: https://theconversation.com/junk-food-and-the-brain-how-modern-diets-lacking-in-micronutrients-may-contribute-to-angry-rhetoric-170863 The Maple Leaf Centre for Food Community: https://www.feedopportunity.com/ Nathan Sing, “The Fight to End Hunger on Canadian University Campuses”: https://education.macleans.ca/feature/the-fight-to-end-hunger-on-canadian-university-campuses/ Sue Stuart-Smith, The Well-Gardened Mind: The Restorative Power of Nature Prudence Vivarini et al., “Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms in Individuals with Eating Disorder: Association with Severity, Psychological Distress, and Psychosocial Function” Jan Zwicky, Once Upon a Time in the West: Essays on the Politics of Thought and Imagination

    29 min

  6. 02/15/2025

    “We need a society where we don’t step over mentally ill people”: Discussing bioethics with Lucy Yanow

    Why do people living with mental illness, including BPD, need to think about bioethics? Because ordinary citizens can now make life-and-death decisions for themselves and others. As laws and regulations change around issues such as involuntary hospitalization and medical assistance in dying, it’s important for everyone to read and watch lectures about bioethics to protect themselves, but it’s essential for those of us suffering from mental health issues. In this second part of my interview with Lucy Yanow, who studies bioethics, we talk about this issue as well as the ultimate unattainability of bodily autonomy. Trigger warning: This episode will discuss suicide and euthanasia. If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources. Raven Belasco, editor, Adventures in Bodily Autonomy: Exploring Reproductive Rights in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror María Puig de la Bellacasa, Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More Than Human Worlds Rosi Braidotti, Posthuman Feminism Judith Butler, The Force of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind Canada’s 2020 report on the estimated cost benefits of MAID         Donna Haraway, Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene Chelsea Kamp, “Manitoba Woman Devastated over Delay in MAID for Mental Illness”: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/maid-manitoba-mental-illness-1.7104343 Sophie Lewis, Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family Mallory Moench, “‘A Ticket to Nowhere’: Thousands Are Brought to S.F. Hospitals Involuntarily. Then What Happens?”: https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/mental-illness-san-francisco-hospitals-homeless-17772797.php Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “Ghostwriting.” Diacritics, Vol. 25, No. 2, 1995.

    31 min

  7. 02/01/2025

    Complex trauma is in our house now: Courtenay Stallings, author of Laura’s Ghost: Women Speak About Twin Peaks

    Why is Laura Palmer a heroine for many of us? Because David Lynch's depiction of her in the Twin Peaks franchise was one of the first and remains one of the most powerful depictions of complex trauma from child sexual abuse. In this interview with professor and writer Courtenay Stallings, we talk about her wonderful book, Laura’s Ghost: Women Speak About Twin Peaks, and how the late, great Lynch catalyzed discussions of the long-neglected topic of abuse -- with which, unfortunately, so many of us with BPD are familiar. Trigger warning for child sexual abuse. Courtenay Stalling’s Laura’s Ghost: Women Speak about Twin Peaks: https://www.tuckerdspress.com/product-page/laura-s-ghost Courtenay Stallings, "Twin Peaks: The Return as Subversive Fairy Tale." Supernatural Studies, vol. 5, no. 2, 2019, pp. 98-116. Julian D. Ford and Christine A. Courtois, “Complex PTSD and Borderline Personality Disorder”: https://bpded.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40479-021-00155-9 Sigmund Freud’s on the uncanny: https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/freud1.pdf Cynthia Gralla, “A Woman in Trouble: My Life and Illnesses Filtered through Twin Peaks”: https://witness.blackmountaininstitute.org/issues-4-2/spring-2021/ David Lynch, dir., Twin Peaks, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, and The Return Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

    42 min

  8. 01/15/2025

    “I thought that mental health problems were something that you caught while young”: Lucy Yanow

    Can recreational drugs be used to treat BPD in controlled environments? In this interview, I talk with Lucy Yanow, who holds a master’s degree in Bioethics and Society and formerly worked as a midwife, doula, and protector of reproductive rights. I ask her about her experience taking ketamine pills for depression and suicidality, but our conversation detours in rich and surprising ways. Lucy opens up about how her family’s history of suicide has affected her. She thoughtfully reflects on intergenerational trauma, the limitations she sees in talk therapy, and weighing the risks of drug therapy against suicidality. Trigger warning: This episode discusses suicide. If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources: Chittaranjan Andrade, “Ketamine for Depression—Knowns, Unknowns, Possibilities, Barriers, and Opportunities” Sarah K. Fineberg et al., “A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of Ketamine in Borderline Personality Disorder” Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?  Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Herland Thomas Vanicek et al., “Intravenous Esketamine Leads to an Increase in Impulsive and Suicidal Behaviour in a Patient with Recurrent Major Depression and Borderline Personality Disorder”

    28 min
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About

A Real Affliction: BPD, Culture, and Stigma is an interview podcast that explores how we live with, treat, advocate for, write about, and conceptualize borderline personality disorder, as well as common co-occurring challenges like complex PTSD, eating disorders, and substance use disorder, all of which I’ve experienced. My guests and I will also discuss how literature, film, television, photography, dance, philosophy, the history of medicine, feminist and disability studies, nature, and bioethics reflect, illuminate, and impact the experience and cultural perceptions of BPD. The podcast’s goal is to increase access to effective, compassionate care.

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